As an example of a recording apparatus, there is an ink jet printer that ejects ink from a recording head to form an image on recording paper. The ink jet printer is configured in such a manner that a sheet of the recording paper trapped between a pair of feeding rollers is transferred to downstream side by rotation of the rollers and is placed opposite to the recording head so as to be supported by a platen from a rear surface side. The recording head has a nozzle surface opposite to the recording paper and nozzle holes are open on the nozzle surface to eject ink there from. In a state where the paper supported by the platen is placed opposite to the nozzle surface, the ink is ejected from the nozzle holes and adhere onto the surface of the recording paper to form an image thereon.
In order to improve precision of adhesion position of the ink on the recording paper, it is desirable to set a gap between the recording head and the recording paper narrower. Especially, in a case where an image having a quality substantially equal to that of silver halide photography is printed, it is necessary to position the recording head and the recording paper in close proximity to each other. For this reason, the platen for supporting the recording paper during printing is disposed opposite to and relatively closer to the recording head.
In general, fine paper powder adhere to the recording paper. The paper powder, coming off from the recording paper, may float and stay near the recording head, or otherwise may be deposited on the surface of the platen. The floating paper powder, and the paper powder deposited on the surface of the platen and thereafter scattered by air flow or the like are likely to adhere to the nozzle holes of the recording head. Such a circumstance is unfavorable because ejection performance of the ink from the nozzle holes will become unstable. As a matter of course, adhesion of the paper powder onto the nozzle holes occurs more frequently when the recording paper is positioned closer to the recording head.
To solve the above described problem, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Publication No. 2003-34057 discloses an image recording apparatus in which a suction fan or the like suctions floating substances or matters containing ink mist to capture them in an ink capturing element formed of sponge and others.
However, since the image recording apparatus disclosed in the Publication No. 2003-34057 is equipped with the suction fan and the ink capturing element formed of the sponge and others in a suction passage, a structure of the apparatus becomes intricate and a size of the entire apparatus is difficult to reduce. In addition, a manufacturing cost of the entire apparatus becomes high and a running cost increases with an increase in a power consumption amount.
Since the suction fan has a driving unit such as a motor, slight vibration is generated by driving of the motor and others during recording. The vibration may be transmitted to the recording paper via the platen provided with the suction fan. Undesirably, such a circumstance makes the adhesion position of the ink ejected from the recording head onto the recording paper unstable, making it difficult to improve the precision of the adhesion position.
In general, in the ink jet printer, the nozzle surface of the recording head is cleaned in specified cycles by using a cleaner blade to remove foreign matters adhering onto the nozzle surface. However, the cleaning of the nozzle surface using the cleaner blade may cause damage to the nozzle surface or wear-out of a water-repellent film on the nozzle surface, deteriorating ink ejection performance, or may interrupt a recording operation being carried out, degrading operation efficiency. For these reasons, it is undesirable to frequently carry out the cleaning of the nozzle surface using the cleaner blade.